Countdown to Jasper

It has begun! (And in my mind, it sounds really good if you start singing Countdown to Jasper to the tune of Nightflight to Venus by Boney M, just an FYI, feel free to join me. Or not. Whatevs). Not counting today, we will be reunited with the pupperton in 9 days. This is monumentally exciting!

I was chatting with my sister (Hi Meghan!) the other day and expressed to her that I was feeling a little bit homesickly. Not overwhelmingly so, but I just have this niggling feeling of, "Alright, ready for the trip to be done, we can go home now"and this is compounded by the fact that Alan will be back in Calgary for a week in December for work. Sans Amanda. Yup, that was some hard news to take. Especially when he kept referring back to the trip as "When we go to Calgary..." as in "When my coworkers and I go to Calgary...". (We have fixed this). To be fair, I probably could have gone with him, but didn't for two reasons. Well, two and a half reasons.

1. We pick up Jasper on Dec 2. (Yippee!) Alan leaves on Dec 8. Nothing says "Welcome home man's best friend!" quite like sticking him in a random boarding kennel for a week.

2. It's hard to stomach the flight cost, as we would likely only go for a week. We could go for longer, but that would make reason number one an even bigger deterrent.

2.5. Alan would be flying business class. I would not. I am spoiled. I fully admit that. But have no fear, friends and family in Canada! This doesn't preclude a trip home in the future, just not this December. I honestly don't mind flying economy, but I'd rather fly economy with my spouse, rather than being 50 rows behind him and sitting on his business class ottoman for dinner. It's justifiable, right?

It's a bit of a moot point now, because as of Monday I am gainfully employed! Yay! Just wait for pictures of the uniform. No scrubs for me.

I anticipate that having Jasper here with us (finally!) and starting a job will help ground me here a little bit. It's not going to remove the whole home sick feeling, and I wouldn't expect it to, however it will be nice for our little family to be complete again, fur-child and all.

BTW, If you want to see pictures of Jasper in quarantine, you can do so here http://www.dogwalks.com.au/cpg/thumbnails.php?album=1230

Brisbane days

We kept quite busy for most of Meghan's trip down under, but we had a few free days in Brisbane. It was so nice to have someone to do some touristy things around Brisbane with. It was also nice to have someone in the car with me to make sure I stayed on the left, as well as clarifying some of Karen's (our car GPS) directions. She can be a tricky lady, that Karen.

One of our first stops on the Brisbane tourist trail was to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. I love this place.

There are literally hundreds of koalas at the sanctuary

Meghan and her new friend - Barnacle

I was excited because the kangaroos were actually awake and hungry this time!

Making more new friends

Food does aid in the friendship making process

Yum!

Do you have any more?

My new friend

There were some joeys around, some in pouches and some that have been kicked out!

They are cute!

 We also took a run along the river and came across this statue.

Teneriffe

I like her bag

Meghan joined us at curling a few times.

We spent another day at the GOMA in Brisbane, the Gallery of Modern Art. It was really fun, and free!

You can use static electricity to stick a plastic shower curtain to a wall and call it art!

Cheeky photo

My favorite. A bright red polar bear!

It matches my sandals! (They have two so certainly they wouldn't mind if I just took one...)

A balancing act

A whole row of metronomes, all at different tempos

Shadow fun

Woot!

We also looked around at the public art in Brisbane

Southbank Bougainvillea pathway

Pelicans on the river

Kangaroos in the CBD

Me on the Kurilpa Bridge

Kurilpa Bridge

I was pretty bummed when Meghan left. It was so wonderful to have her here and our time together just flew by! But you know what they say about what happens to time when you're having fun...

In other news, Jasper is in the country! He's making friends at the quarantine station and I'm hoping to get some pictures back from the dog walker to share with you very soon. I am literally counting down the days until we go and get him. Very, very excited for that!